Submarine boat.



WITNE K. VLLER.

SUBMARINE BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 30. 1914.

1 ,187,206. Patented Jun@ 13, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

K. vLLER.

SUBMARINE BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 30. 1914.

Patented June 18, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

v\/\TrJE55E5 INVENTUR 10a/Z- i UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

KARL VLLER, OF DUSSELDORF, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO RHEINISCHE METALL- WAAREN- UND MASCHINENFABRIK, OF DUSSELDORF-DERENDORF, GERMANY,

A CORPORATION OF GERMANY.

SUBMARINE BOAT.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented June 13, 1916.

Application filed November 30, 1914. Serial No. 874,884.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

gineer, a subject of the German Emperor residing at Dusseldorf, I2 Scharnhorstrasse, i'

Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Submarine Boats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear7 and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Hitherto in ships the ammunition for guns was arranged within the interior of the vessel so that it was diicult and inconvenient to transport the ammunition to the guns positioned on the deck of the ship. In such cases the ammunition must be transported by hand or by special apparatus like lifts, conveyers or the like from the interior of the ship to the deck.

The known method of arranging the ammunition is especially inconvenient in boats which are submerged from time to time. In such boats it is very important to use the room in the interior of the vessel as much as possible, and further the high temperature by which under certain circumstances the powder of the ammunition could be decomposed after some time must be taken into consideration. It would be necessary to provide means for preventing the ammunition from assuming the higher temperature7 such means consisting for instance in devices for cooling or for insulating the ammunition against heat.

My present invention has the object to avoid the said difficulties and inconveniences by fully departing from the known manner of arranging the ammunition in ships. According to my invention I do not arrange the ammunition within the interior of the vessel exposed to the water pressure and protecting its contents against said pressure.

On the contrary, I arrange the ammunition on the outside of the vessel in such a manner that the ammunition itself is exposed to the pressure of the water if the boat is submerged.

I prefer to arrange the ammunition at the outside of the vessel in such a state that it can be immediately fired, that is to say,

the projectile 'is combined with a casing `containing the powder so as to form a complete cartridge.

These cartridges are arranged in portable containers by which they are insulated from the water.

As the pressure of water may be comparatively high in some cases it would be necessary to make the walls of the ammunition containers so thick and strong that they can resist the water pressure. Thereby however the weight of the containers would become relatively large, while it is necessary to keep the load of the submarine boat as low as possible. Therefore in order to make the containers as light as possible and yet to adapt them to resist the high water pressure in submerging I prefer to give them a very thin wall and to construct them so that they surround the ammunition so closely that the wall of the container is in a close contact with the ammunition at so many places that the water pressure is taken up by the ammunition itself. It is evident that the play between the container wall and the ammunition must be so small that the limit of elasticity of the material -is not surpassed by the deformationA caused by the water pressure so that any deformation of the container wall will disappear if the water pressure ceases..

In order to protect the ammunition against the rays of the sun I prefer to arrange the ammunition containers within larger tanks fastened on the vessel or to provide them with a heat insulating material arranged on the inner or on the outer sides of the container. The said tanks may be manufactured of thin perforated sheet metal so that the water can enter them. The containers themselves however are closed in'a watertight manner'by means adapted to be opened within a very short time.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown by way of example some embodiments of my invention.

Figure l is a sectional elevation of an ammunition container. Fig. 2 is a similar sectional view of another embodiment of my invention. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the embodiment shown by Fig.- 2. Fig. 4 is a cross section of the last mentioned modiication. Fig. 5 is a diagrammatical cross section through a submarine boat showing the arrangement of the ammunition within tanks. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the part of the submarine boat.

In the construction shown by Fig. l a is the cartridge consisting of a projectile'and a casing. a thin container Z) consisting of sheet metal or the like and provided with a lining c of asbestos or a similar material. At the inner end of the container a cap oZ of wood or the like is inserted and provided with `a recess c for protecting the fuse of the p'rojectile. The container is closed by a cover f also having a lining of asbestos and fastened in any known manner so as to close the container in a water tight manner.

If the boat is submerged-the containers not containing any ammunition must be open because otherwise their thin walls would not offer sulicient resistance to the pressure of the water. It is preferable to arrange the containers in an inclined position so that the open ends are somewhat lower than the closed ends. This will cause the water to run out from any empty con-` tainers if the boat raises again out of the water. Thus the containers are always ready for the reception of new ammunition.

In the modification shown by Figs. 2-4 the means for closing the container and fastening the cover are so constructed that it is impossible to close the container if it does not contain a cartridge. For this purpose the container is provided with a locking device preventing the container from being closed in an empty state. In this modification a is the cartridge surrounded by the thin walled container b having a cover which is pressed on to a ring Lfastened at the container b and provided with a packing ring g. The means for pressing the cover f on to the ring b are in the shown embodiment similar to the well known devices for closing bottles and consist of a wire bow z', the ends Zt' of which are bent inwardly and engage the eyes n of the legs fm, of a second wire bow Z pivoted in the ring L. The wire bow Z forms a bent lever (Fig. 3) which may be pressed against the container Z) so as to draw the wire bow z' and the cover f firmly on the ring h. The con'- tainer can be openedv by forcing away'the bow Z from the container, whereby the cover f is made free so that it can be removed from the container.

A double-armed lever o (Fig. 4:) is pivot ally fastened at the edge of the ammunition container. If the latter is filled with a cartridge the longer arm of the lever o rests This cartridge is surrounded byY against the cartridge casing and the shorter arm of the lever against the flange of the cover f. If the ammunition is drawn out of the container the lever 0 is turned by means of the over-weight of its longer arm, whereby the shorter arm extends so much to the outside that the cover f cannot be brought on to the container. This position of the lever o is shown by dotted lines in Fig. il. By inserting the new cartridge into the container the longer arm of the lever o is moved aside and thereby the shorter arm is drawn inwardly so that -now the cover can be brought on to the container in the usual manner.

- As shown by Figs. 5 and 6 the ammuni-l tion is arranged within special tanks 1' fas'- tened in any convenient manner on the outside of the vessel g. The tanks r consist of perforate sheet metal as shown in the drawing. They may be closed by covers s.

I-Iaving now particularly described the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is:

l. In combination with a submarine vessel, means for retaining ammunition on the outside of such vessel comprising portable containers for the ammunition which protect it from the water while exposed to the pressure thereof on submergence, said containers having thin walls which may contact-with the body of the ammunition to take up the water pressure.

2. In combination with a submarine ves-Y sel, a container for retaining ammunition on the outside of said vessel comprising a receptacle for the ammunition which pro-4 tects it from the water while exposed to the pressure thereof on submergence, said container having flexible walls which may contact with the body of the ammunition to take up the water pressure, a closing device for said container, and means for preventing the seating of the closing device when the receptacle is empty.

3. In combination with a submarine vessel, a container for retaining ammunition on the outside of said vessel comprising a receptacle for the ammunition which protects it from the water while exposed to the pressure thereof on submergence, said container having flexible walls which may contact with the body of the ammunition to take up the water pressure, a closing device for said container, and an insulating lining for the receptacle.

tfIn combination with a submarine vessel, a container for retaining ammunition on the'outside of said vessel comprising a receptacle for the ammunition which pro tectsit from the water while exposed to the pressure thereof on submergence, said contact with the body of the ammunition to memos' 3 take up the Water pressure, a closing device specification in the piesence of two subscribfor said container, and a lever pivoted on ing Witnesses. said receptacle and designed to extend into' the path of the closing device to prevent seating thereof When the receptacle is empty.

In testimony whereof I have signed this KARL VLLER.

Witnesses:

J. WYNEN, J. D. ZmsEoK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patenti, Washington, D. C." 

